In an unexpected move, Mike Kirkup, Research in Motion Senior Director of Developer Relations, resigns after 10 years at the company.

As the mobile space continues to change so quickly and this seems like a great time to step back and consider my next steps. If you wonder what I mean about the changing mobile landscape, just look at what has happened in the last two weeks – Motorola was acquired by Google, HP shut down webOS and Steve Jobs resigned as CEO from Apple.

I would never expect a corporate executive to paint a bleak picture of the company they represent when doing an interview with a journalist. Eternal optimism is pretty much required both on and off the record. When a company, however, is experiencing tough times, it is always nice when the eternally optimistic views of its executives actually line up with the reality of what the company is going through. Unfortunately, this is not the case when it comes to Mike Kirkup, Research in Motion’s Director of Developer Relations.